on the cradle of oxygen

Oxygen is crucial for existence: we're immersed in it yet none of it without a doubt originates from our very own planet. All oxygen became ultimately shaped through thermonuclear reactions deep interior stars. Laboratory research of the astrophysical strategies main to the formation of oxygen are extremely important. A huge leap forward in these research may be possible whilst paintings commences in 2018 at the intense mild Infrastructure -- Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility close to Bucharest, the usage of a modern day source of excessive gamma radiation. excessive power protons will be intercepted using a mainly-designed particle detector appearing as a goal. A demonstrator model of the detector, constructed at the school of Physics, university of Warsaw (FUW), has these days finished the first spherical of exams in Romania.

In terms of mass, the most abundant elements in the Universe are hydrogen (seventy four%) and helium (24%). the percentage through mass of other, heavier elements is extensively lower: oxygen comprises simply zero.eighty five% and carbon zero.39% (in evaluation, oxygen comprises sixty five% of the human frame and carbon 18% by means of mass). In nature, conditions supporting the formation of oxygen are gift best within evolutionarily-advanced stars that have converted almost all their hydrogen into helium. Helium will become then their predominant gas. At this level, 3 helium nuclei begin combining right into a carbon nucleus. by way of including another helium nucleus, this in turn bureaucracy an oxygen nucleus and emits one or more gamma photons.

"Oxygen may be defined as the 'ash' from the thermonuclear 'combustion' of carbon. but what mechanism explains why carbon and oxygen are usually formed in stars at greater or much less the identical percentage of 6 to 10?" asks Dr. Chiara Mazzocchi (FUW). She goes on to provide an explanation for: "Stars evolve in levels. at some stage in the first level, they convert hydrogen into helium, then helium into carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, with heavier factors formed in next stages. Oxygen is formed from carbon during the helium-burning segment. The aspect is that, in theory, oxygen may be produced at a quicker price. If the celebrity had been to run out of helium and shift to the following stage of its evolution, the proportions between carbon and oxygen would be specific."

The experiments deliberate for ELI-NP will not truely recreate thermonuclear reactions converting carbon into oxygen and photons gamma. In fact, researchers are hoping to have a look at the reverse reaction: collisions among high-energy photons with oxygen nuclei to produce carbon and helium nuclei. Registering the goods of this decay must make it possible to examine the traits of the response and quality-song existing theoretical models of thermonuclear synthesis.

"we're getting ready an eTPC detector for the experiments at ELI-NP. it's far an electronic-readout time-projection chamber, which is an updated model of an earlier detector constructed on the school's Institute of Experimental Physics. The latter become correctly utilized by our researchers for the arena's first observations of a unprecedented nuclear system: two-proton decay," says Dr. Mikolaj Cwiok (FUW).

the primary detail of the eTPC detector is a chamber full of fuel comprising many oxygen nuclei (e.g. carbon dioxide). The gasoline acts as a goal. The gamma radiation beam passes via the fuel, with some of the photons colliding with oxygen nuclei to supply carbon and helium nuclei. The nuclei fashioned via the response, which are charged particles, ionise the gasoline. so one can growth their range, the fuel is stored at a reduced stress, round 1/10 of the atmospheric one. The launched electrons are directed using an electric powered discipline towards the gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) amplification systems observed via readout electrodes. the paths of the debris are registered electronically the usage of strip electrodes. Processing the records the use of specialised FPGA processors makes it viable to reconstruct the 3-D paths of the debris.

The lively region of the detector will be 35x20x20 cm^3, and at nominal intensity of the photon beam it need to register up to 70 collisions of gamma photons with oxygen nuclei in step with day. checks at ELI-NP used a demonstrator:a smaller however completely useful version of the very last detector, named mini-eTPC. The device became tested with a beam of alpha debris (helium nuclei).

"we're extraordinarily pleased with the outcomes of the tests carried out to date. The demonstrator worked as we predicted and correctly registered the tracks of charged particles. we are sure to use it in destiny studies as a fully operational measuring device. In 2018, ELI-NP could be prepared with a larger detector which we're currently building at our laboratories," adds Dr. Mazzocchi.

The assignment is done in collaboration with researchers from ELI-NP/IFIN-HH (Magurele, Romania) and the university of Connecticut in the US. The Warsaw team, led through Prof. Wojciech Dominik, brings collectively physicists and engineers from the department of debris and fundamental Interactions and the Nuclear Physics department and college students from the university of Warsaw: Jan Stefan Bihalowicz, Jerzy Manczak, Katarzyna Mikszuta and Piotr Podlaski.

excessive mild Infrastructure (ELI) is a studies project worth 850 million euro, carried out as a part of the ecu approach forum on studies Infrastructures roadmap. The ELI medical consortium will embody three centres in the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary, focusing on research into the interactions among mild and count number below the conditions of the maximum effective photon beams and at a extensive variety of wavelengths and timescales measured in attoseconds (a billionth of a billionth of a second). The Romanian ELI -- Nuclear Physics centre, in Magurele near Bucharest, conducts studies into  sources of radiation: excessive-depth radiation lasers (of the order of a 10^23 watts in step with square centimetre), and excessive-depth assets of monochromatic gamma radiation. The gamma beam can be fashioned with the aid of scattering laser light off the electrons extended by means of a linear accelerator to speeds nearing the speed of light.

Physics and Astronomy first seemed on the university of Warsaw in 1816, below the then school of Philosophy. In 1825 the Astronomical Observatory was hooked up. currently, the college of Physics' Institutes consist of Experimental Physics, Theoretical Physics, Geophysics, department of Mathematical techniques and an Astronomical Observatory. research covers nearly all regions of contemporary physics, on scales from the quantum to the cosmological. The college's studies and teaching personnel includes ca. 200 college teachers, of which 88 are personnel with the name of professor. The college of Physics, college of Warsaw, is attended with the aid of ca. 1000 students and greater than a hundred and seventy doctoral students.